Motors The Official bit-tech F1 2011 Thread

Re: passing and 2nd KERS vs Stalling rear wing.
The stalling rear wing adds an element to the mix that a second KERS wouldn't. as far as I understand.
It apparently offsets some of the turbulent air behind cars. Yes, it's better without the double diffusers, but there is still turbulent air there, which upsets aero. The rear wing stalling makes that less. Or should at least.

Sure, it's not the wtfpwn weapon that it was hyped up to be, but seeing it in Australia showed that acelleration in the trailing car in each case was up, as opposed to the lead car. That's what it was supposed to do.
And again - coupled with KERS, the effect of it should be increased.

I DO however believe that they should let the drivers use it anywhere, so long as they're a second or less behind. If someone's retarded enought ot turn it on in a corner, they better be driever enough to handle that as well... I can see the accident through 130R

I'd say give it more time. It's early days yet, and we might see more use of it in the future...

 

Every time you mention that corner, someone fires up a vid of Alonso schooling Schumi there in '05.

It would be AWESOME to have some DRS shenanigans at 130R.

 

I wonder if part of the reason Hispania struggled is a lack of KERS (and perhaps DRS)?

Given that they did do little driving last weekend I couldn't see if they had DRS on the car. Then again the car is so late and so lacking in shakedown time that I don't think that they had much chance of qualifying anyway.

Reminds me of Arrows turning up for a race weekend, doing one lap then packing up so they could keep the FIA money for turning up. Of course, they folded anyhow. I fear that if Hispania don't get qualified the next couple of races that they will soon go the way of USF1, Simtek, Pacific, Lola and other F1 rejects - out of the sport.

Virgin aren't impressing me either... I think their CFD only strategy has backfired this year. The car is slow and needs more downforce by the looks of it. The Cossie is a fine engine and Glock is a good driver so it seems the car is lacking something aero wise.

Maybe there's more to it but have to say they seem to have stood still - if I didn't know better I'd have suggested they were running the same basic car.

Lotus seem to be doing okay - they had a bad weekend and weren't as fast as expected but I do think that's partly (1) distraction due to the High Court case and (2) the fact that they're still finding their feet in the technical department. I think they'll do serious development this year and improve to the point where they're challenging Force India.

Williams were disappointing in that they didn't get the result this weekend despite looking like having a decent package this year. A lot of it was Ruebens having a poor weekend. The car looks decent but maybe needs a little more development to get the best out of it? Ruebens ramming his car into Rosberg didn't help - threw away points there.

 

For random comparison's sake, it seems McLaren still don't ahev the flexing front wings. And they DO flex on the RBR (though in a way that passes all tests...well done, Mr Newey)

 

Rbr have a flexi nose too, that's part of their secret. F1 technical have a good video showing the flex. It's something that the other teams are going to have to work at or fall behind.

 

...interesting...

 

I posted a theory about this a couple of pages ago. The more i think of it, the more it makes sense. It's simply made so it will bend downwards AND backwards. The FIA test only pushes down and so therefore doesn't make it bend as it does when running.

Going by Sutil's little incident coming out of the last corner in qualifying do you really think they'll allow DRS through 130R? Don't get me wrong, i would love to some proper action through there using it but i dont think they'll let it happen. Just like it would be awesome at Spa for them to have it from La Source all the way up to Les Combes but it just wont happen.
That said, i can see possibilities of some huge smashes during quali coming out of Eau Rouge as everyone tries to get it working that little bit earlier than the next guy.

 

ninjapost:

Anyone heard of Batracer?

I figured i fancy a go, so if someone else is up for a private game or something, post here and we could organise something
(no, i'm not a pro at this, last time i played was some time ago).

for anyone, who is not aware of the game, it's a browser racing manager. Pretty darn fun i'd say (starting from rally cars to F1 cars).
games usually seem to last around 2 - 4 weeks, with one race per 24h or so (if my understanding is correct that is).
please let me know via PM, or preferably in this thread: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=2637596#post2637596

if we got enough, we could do our own "little" GP11 season

 

So FP1 was dominated by Mark Webber, and now FP2 is on the way...
http://live.autosport.com/commentary.php/id/327

So far, the cars are running about 3 seconds shy of where they were last year.
However, the weatherman says good chances of rain (as always in Malaysia), and looking at the last 2 years (2009 red flagged after 35 or so laps and rain in the last bit of Q1 2010 ensuring that McLaren and Ferrari never made it out of Q1), this could definitely add up to an interesting race.

Also let's not forget that it's the hottest conditions that the Pirellis have been driven in, and Pirelli is predicting 4 stops.

In Australia they predicted 2-3 stops (not sure which one), and that's what they got. The exception being that freak one-stop in there.
So we can expect 3 stops and 4 stops on Sunday, with possibly one or two people trying their luck and going for 2.

Looking at FP2 times so far, it looks like an HRT just might qualify... barely...

Edit:
Renault boasts their engines can burn 10% more fuel than the others and still finish the race. James Allen speculates that that's about 15kg of fuel, whcih around Albert Park equates to 6/10 of a second.

 

Christ that was a close quali! I predict an excellent start to tomorrows race, as for the rest of the race i think the Renaults may cause more surprises.

 

Pastor Maldonado having Braces must be a pain in the arse. That metal must offset like a few grands worth of weight loss...

 

Love the name Vetel is using for his current Red Bull car.

 

Awesome quali session. Amazing to see Hamilton only one tenth off Vettel at the end of it and that's with the Red Bulls using KERS and the McLarens still using at least some of the cobbled together parts they were running in Australia. Think the gap is going to be even closer in China next week.

 

What an awesome start by Renault

 

Well, an entertaining race for sure. Some great scraps throughout the field.

2.7 second pit stop from Red Bull, surely that's some kind of record.

Can someone please explain to Petrov the difference between car and plane
Still, officially classified 17th so i'll still get some Fantasy F1 points from him lol

 

Yeah, definitely a good race. I was pleased to see Quick Nick take home a podium finish, and sort of pleasantly surprised to see Button get P2. No shortage of shenanigans today.

Also, does anyone know whether brake tests are allowed or not? The rate of closure between Alonso and Hamilton during the shunt seemed to suggest that either Alonso was careless with the throttle/KERS or that Hamilton deliberately brake tested him (a la Rossi v Lorenzo at Catalunya in 2009).

 

I doubt Hamilton put the brakes on there - all that would do is ensure a collision and likely knock him out of the race. Looking at the footage it just looks like Alonso gets sucked into the back by epic tow.

 

Well, according to the Beeb, the stewards will have a look anyway. Interesting to see what they come up with.

Why is everyone so impressed with Paul di Resta? He's consistent and all that but the commentators always seem to jizz themselves when he's on screen.

 

Fly Petrov, FLY!

 

Hamilton has been punished for swerving about blocking Alonso. And Alonso got punished. But who's the one that didn't suffer I'm betting you ask? Ferrari!